SANTA CRUZ >> Microscopic channels in membranes are a powerful tool to sequence DNA and detect viruses, according to a series of talks Wednesday at the UC Santa Cruz Baskin School of Engineering Research Review Day.

These channels, called nanopores, were one of three broad research areas featured during the event. The all-day affair, which also showcased ways to apply data science and economics to engineering, attracted more than 100 registered attendees from around the Bay Area.

Dean of Engineering Joseph Konopelski said that the event included three interdisciplinary tracks of talks to allow participants to sample “a bigger bite” of the engineering research happening at UCSC and beyond.

In June, the MinION, an inexpensive pocket-sized DNA sequencing device developed using nanopore technology from UCSC labs hit the market — nearly two decades after UCSC biomolecular engineer David Deamer first envisioned such a tool.

Deamer, collaborating UCSC professor Mark Akeson and graduate student Miten Jain each spoke about the 20-year journey to bring the idea from a doodle on a scrap of paper to a marketable product.

The science behind the nanopore technology is simple: electric current flows across cell membranes because of the charge difference between the inside and the outside of the cell. Molecules passing through a tiny nanopore one by one will disrupt the current flow. By measuring these flow interruptions, it’s theoretically possible to distinguish between different types of molecules passing across the boundary.

But in practice, threading a single-stranded molecule of DNA through a miniscule hole and reading the genetic code was challenging.

“The skeptics were everywhere. They would come up to you after a seminar and say ‘that would never work,’” said Akeson. Deamer, Akeson, and their colleagues spent years troubleshooting the technique.

In 2007, a UK-based company Oxford Nanopore Technologies approached the UCSC researchers hoping to use their designs in a product. The result of that partnership is the MinION — not a mischievous yellow cartoon character, but a portable DNA sequencer that costs about $1,000, a fraction of the cost and size of traditional sequencers.

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Deamer described the MinION as “a successful handshake between universities and industry,” an example of technology rooted in UCSC labs making its way to a wider market.

“We’ve gone from room-size instruments to benchtop instruments, now to this remarkable little thing,” said Stuart Lindsay, a plenary speaker at Research Review Day and director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, comparing the MinION to other sequencing equipment. Lindsay is not involved in the MinION project, but his lab is working to create artificial nanopore structures that can read DNA sequences — or perhaps someday even protein sequences — more precisely.

The MinION isn’t the only nanopore project happening at UCSC.

Holger Schmidt spoke about thumbnail-sized chips that use both optical and electrical measurements to differentiate between viruses moving through nanopores. Recent tests show that chips could be used to quickly and accurately detect viruses such as Ebola in the field.